


a skilful coward hides the truth so well

by JD2357



Series: janurwby prompts 2021 [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Canonical Character Death, Developing Friendships, JanuRWBY, Mentions other characters, Multi, One Shot, Redemption, Relationship(s), Semblance Exploration, Song Lyrics, Spoilers: Volume 8 (RWBY), but also hopeful predictions for Volume 8, if ship not canon then why one broody one cheery, raven do the right thing challenge, some headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28511841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD2357/pseuds/JD2357
Summary: "The physical effect of Raven’s Semblance was simple. Slash through air, make a portal to a loved one. Easy. But most people never thought about how she knew when - and how she knew who.She could sense danger. Not in any literal sense; it was context clues, from the feelings fed back to her Aura - to her soul - from those bonded few. The love she felt from Tai every time they touched only made her own flourish more. The pride her idiot brother exuded every time Oz commended him on a job well done made her want to give the praise-seeking prat a slap. The courage she received from Summer, no matter how dark the things they’d faced, kept her believing that maybe there could be a happy ending for them all."Day 2 of #januRWBY; 'Favourite Song'; inspired by 'Cold' and 'Fear.'
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Raven Branwen, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Raven Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long
Series: janurwby prompts 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086476
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	a skilful coward hides the truth so well

“Little brother, would you get your nose _out of there,_ before the others leave us for the Grimm?”

It was the first time the tribe had let them follow one of their raids, to mark their eighth birthday. Her little brother, being the _idiot_ he is, had taken it upon himself to disobey _everything_ the leaders had told them; not only did he refuse to just stand and watch like they were supposed to, but he’d run off and started looting a boarded-up hovel of a home to boot!

Raven had been annoyed. Then came the piercing squall of Nevermores from over the horizon, the horn sounding out for the tribe to flee with what they’d looted; _then_ she was furious with him. 

And then came the crash as the roof caved in from above, dust and flakes of rotted wood flying this way and that. Qrow screamed, and her heart stopped...and then he screamed again, and she had hope.

“Help! Sis, sis, I can’t get it--help!”

And fear, too. But having fear was fine. All she had to do was be stronger than it. Raven immediately dashed forward, pawing and scrabbling at the rubble trapping her twin inside the house. “Oh, you and that Semblance of yours - what would you do without me?” She laughed, hiding an increasing shakiness in her voice, as her tiring young arms began to struggle to move any more of the beams and rocks in the way.

She pulled, and pushed, and clawed and strained and struggled...but couldn’t make any further headway. Her little brother yelled out again, and she stumbled backward as a Nevermore - had so much time passed already? - descended arrowlike, onto the frame of the building, stabbing its beak down into the rubble, searching for the source of the terror it could sense.

The terror that Raven could feel as her own. More than empathy or concern, something... _deeper_ inside her was screaming too - screaming that _her brother is in danger, Qrow is in danger, she needs to_ **_get to him--_ **

...How could she…?

She found herself blinking, feeling as though she’s suddenly woken in to a new situation, nearly a new _person,_ with the guttural white noise coming from the swirling mass of red and black before her assaulting her senses, loud enough even to drown out the blood rushing to her ears.

“Sis, there’s a--something here, I don’t know what it--”

_Right._

Understanding at last, Raven reached through her first portal and pulled her little brother into her arms.

_-_

_Then I met you_

_You weren’t afraid_

_Of anything_

_-_

The strategy was simple. Qrow would land first, she would use her Semblance to warp to him, they’d be matched up as partners - no faff, no risk of some idiot wannabe Huntsman or Huntress from Vale getting in the way of their plans. They were here to learn to kill Beacon’s cute little graduates - whoever the other pair they’d be made a quartet with, the relationship would be professional at _best._

She slashed repeatedly, in whirling motions with gravity Dust-infused blades to keep herself suspended above the Emerald Forest for as long as possible. Sooner or later, she decided that _surely_ her little brother must have gotten down and on his own by now, and with the next slash, she ripped a portal into the air beneath her to fall into…

...and landed with perfect form, sheathing her blade. Tensely, she looked around for Qrow in the foliage. Aha! A quick glimpse of red between reds and browns, surely being her twin’s ludicrous cape--

**WHUMP!**

“Ohhhh no, oh I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going--!”

Raven, between the stars she’d been seeing since being crumpled onto the forest floor by a speeding _something,_ looked up to see--

“--I was just like ‘I’ll dodge the King Tajitu all cool like ‘wah-chah’ and then I’ll counter like ‘whee’’ and to be fair I _did_ the first bit but then I knocked into you and--”

\--an _idiot_ lying on top of her. _Fuck. Just what she needed._ ....Wait, did she say--

“--but speaking of, we should probably get up before that big dumb snake eats us, new partner!”

She blinked again, and ‘her new partner’ was out of sight, leaving an aghast and agape Branwen to spit petals out of her mouth. 

Within a few seconds of the bandit returning to her feet with a hand on her revolving hilt, the King Tajitu was already collapsing into dust, the white-cloaked sop having put on an impressive show of strength for...all other impressions she gave off.

“Whew, this forest is just a _death trap,_ huh? Don’t worry, partner, I’ll keep you safe from _alllll_ the Grimm!” In a show of sincerity, the girl shakes her hair - its colour a dark red gradient - out of her cloak, hood dropping back behind her shoulders. 

“I’m Summer Rose!” Summer stepped forward, extending a hand--and promptly tripping over a knot of vines on the ground beneath her. Somewhere in the thicket around them, the bandit recognised the sound of Harbinger’s gears winding up - that bloody Semblance of his!

And so, Raven promptly began weighing up her murderous intent toward her brother versus that to this ‘new partner.’

-

_You taught me how_

_To leave the ground_

_To use my wings_

_-_

The autumn air blows in through the open window of Team STRQ’s dorm room.

“You don’t think it’s...weird? We’re not...humans anymore. Oz made us...more than that.”

“Rae, it makes you _cooler_ than normal people! You can _fly!_ As if cutting portals out of thin air and having swords made of Dust wasn’t enough!” 

Summer’s good cheer made her feel a bit better, but that was what Summer was _always_ like.

“You’d say that even if I was...a rat, or something. Or a Grimm.” Raven turned away, her hair - so featherlike, which seemed a sick twist of ironic fate by now - covering the way her frame shrinks in shame.

“...Of course I would. That’s the point. You’re still _you,_ Rae. It wouldn’t matter if the Headmaster--”

“We both know he’s more than that,” she interjects warningly.

“--whatever he is. It wouldn’t matter if he turned you into a _slug_ to spy on Salem - it could never make me think less of you. Nothing could.”

Summer stepped forward again, extending two hands. And with no vines like there had been in the Emerald Forest those years ago, Raven took it on herself to keep distanced from the contact, still scared even now of letting this white-cloaked girl get too close to her.

But it was only the way her heart soared from her reassurance, her confidence, that let the raven fly when the woman leaped out of the window.

She felt guilty...but it was alright. Whenever she wanted to apologise, she could always just use her Semblance and find her.

-

_I never thought_

_a hero_

_would ever come my way_

_-_

Eventually, Raven wanted to give up. To abandon Oz, abandon this _mess_ she’d gotten wrapped up in, go back to the life of banditry she’d once planned. To run for her life before she got too deep.

But what she always wanted more was for Summer to agree. Maybe for Summer’s _permission,_ in a way; she had the stomach to let down the old headmaster, but not the heart to forsake that softhearted idiot of a partner.

“Summer,” she’d say some days, “she’s _everywhere._ No one’s ever safe.”

“All the more reason we have to stop her, Rae. We’re the only ones who can!”

“Summer,” she’d warn other days, “I don’t think she _can_ be stopped. We both know what I saw, when she met Rainart. He _couldn’t_ kill her.”

“If that’s the truth, it doesn’t change anything for us. Just because she can’t be killed doesn’t mean she can’t be _stopped._ ”

“Summer,” she pleaded once, “why does it have to be _us?_ Oz has hundreds of little soldiers he can rase against her - I don’t want _us_ to--”

“Because together, we can do things others would call impossible. So long as we’re together. Please, trust me.”

Summer offered a hand, and Raven took it that time.

-

_But more than that_

_I never thought_

_you’d be taken away_

-

The physical effect of Raven’s Semblance was simple. Slash through air, make a portal to a loved one. Easy. But most people never thought about how she knew when - and how she knew who.

She could sense danger. Not in any literal sense; it was context clues, from the feelings fed back to her Aura - to her soul - from those bonded few. The love she felt from Tai every time they touched only made her own flourish more. The pride her idiot brother exuded every time Oz commended him on a job well done made her want to give the praise-seeking prat a slap. The courage she received from Summer, no matter how dark the things they’d faced, kept her believing that maybe there _could_ be a happy ending for them all.

The wonder she felt from Yang, every time the little girl found something new; the childish sorrow when she lost something or fell from a new height; the white-hot fury the day they first tried to cut her hair; all these transmissions made Raven loathe herself more for this pathetic ailment she suffered from - this...

~~_Sensibility!_ ~~

~~_Pragmatism?_ ~~

_Cowardice._

She woke up in the middle of a stormy night - stormy in Anima, at least; she couldn’t know what the weather was like in Patch - feeling, from the kindred link in her soul, like she’d only entered a nightmare on rising to the waking world. There was an underflow of courage; but nothing more beneath waves and tremors of sickening fear, such that made her double over the moment she rose from her bed.

It was Summer, she could tell, as she crawled through her tent to her weapon. Picking it up, the fear stopped for a second… And Raven took that second to think this through. The middle of the night, with every other bond’s emotions kept in solemn check… The white-cloaked mother’s tripe about believing in their feelings for one another to protect Team STRQ from the horrors of this world meant the one thing Raven could be sure of was that she wasn’t off somewhere on her own. And she’d never leave that girl - what’s her name - Ruby?

Summer’s emotions emitted a crushing wave of grief, regret, pity; Raven felt it too, and in turn sickened by this apathy she’s been trying to force in herself. She manifested a blade of fire Dust, and as she wound up to swing, she felt...something new.

Something new being nothing. Nothing at all.

She slashed, and the blade shattered against the very air with a horrid screeching sound, like, like a turbine engine scraping against a chalkboard--

The cylinder rotated with a click. A wind blade. Aural rapture. Pieces on the floor of her tent. 

_Click._ Gravity. Screeching. Shatter,

_Click._ Ice. Screaming. Summer; nothing.

_Click. Click. Click._

Hyperventilating, crying, lungs burning, Raven changed approach. Tai. _Click._ She slashed through air with a black blade, and stepped through the portal, pieces of broken swords snapping underfoot.

His room in Patch, moonlit. One side of the bed laid empty. Tai sleeping; handsome; clueless. A note on the bedside cabinet for him from her.

She stepped back and closed the portal before he could wake and see an abandoning failure of a mother.

Bandits of the Branwen tribe would wake up that night to the sound of a banshee; none would ever dare ask Raven come the morrow if the anguished wails had been anything but a passing Grimm. And they wouldn’t get the chance if any had the gall. She never left her tent that next day; only throwing jagged Dust-infused fragments in piles through flaps.

Henceforth, her weapon was named _Omen._ For all its failure would ever represent.

-

_who will you see?_

_there in the darkness_

_when no one is watching_

_who will you be?_

-

The night Beacon fell, every emotion she felt from Yang was sickeningly familiar. 

The courage.

The fear.

The flash of regret.

Then _nothing._

Raven couldn’t bring herself to check. She just _couldn’t._ Omen lay sat on the table, and Vernal won their next card game, as Raven waited to see if she would ever feel anything of Yang’s ever again.

-

_when you're afraid_

_and everything changes_

_will you see a stranger?_

-

Orange leaves flew around the Vault like scattered petals.

“She was troubled, and complicated, but she fought for what she believed in, whether it was her team or her tribe!”

Raven was prepared to scoff that off, easily; she’d practically rehearsed how to by now.

“Did you kill her too?”

…

And that was when she realised.

Summer loved Raven no matter what she might be turned into. That had always been a comfort - a secret source of pride, even.

And as if going out of her way to trample on the Rose’s wishes, the coward had turned _herself_ into something. Something unrecognisable. Something that wasn’t Raven - not the one she knew.

With that, the coward exploded at her daughter, whose ignition burned even that cowardice out in time.

At long last, she had to cut to Tai again.

-

_Feel proud, or betrayed?_

-

“No… No, come back!”

She hears Zwei shift on the sofa as she rushes down the stairs, shaking her unkempt hair out.

“Tai. Tai, it’s alright, I saw it. We can… _I_ can…”

He looks up, a sudden glimpse of hope peeking through the hands covering a quickly tear-strewn face.

She’s killed a better self once before. Killing a coward should be easy.

“That girl… She looked just like her mother, getting that message out,” Raven admits with a weak smile. “Come on. Let’s get ready to go.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading!!!!
> 
> Fear is definitely my #1 fave song, but Cold is up there too, and when planning this fic it hit me how well they go together.
> 
> raven is one of my fav rwby characters and i really wanted to explore her a bit this month, hope i did her justice! honestly, i wasn't sure when i started this if it'd be a rosebird fic, but the brainworms decided halfway through it definitely would be - it's about the angst i can't :c


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